Sunday, September 04, 2005

Oh the humanity! (Again)

Because I've already used the first part as the title to a previous post.

So I am now living at home. With the 2 dogs. And my mom. To be fair, it's not like there isn't precedent for this. After my dad died I spend a year living at home, working as a receptionist/lacky (aka "legal intern") for an office of 3 lawyers in Fairfield. Ever since I learned that my law firm wasn't going to extend me an offer I knew this was coming. And now I'm finally here. Okay, again to be fair and because I haven't been blogging regularly *ahem*, I've been "here" for about a week.

It's not too bad. I like having the dogs around. I remember my mom saying long ago that there's a special connection between a boy and his dog. I think she's right. The dogs are friendly to me in a way completely unlike their friendliness to my mom. Granted I like to sit and play with them more often and I'm more forgiving. Even so, it's kind of neat.

So yeah, I'm living at home. With my mom. Last time I did this I was 22 and had just graduated from college. At the time, I wasn't ready to face the real world, nowhere near ready. This time, I'm 26 and I just graduated from law school. If it weren't for the comfort factor inherent in living at home, I'm ready to do something in the real world. What exactly I as yet do not know.

I do my best here to help out my mom with small chores and picking up after myself. Much more so than last time. I figure it will help ease things along, buy me some buffer zone to work with and spend. Even so, she's already attempting to assert her point of view as to various things of mine. At least since high school and college, my mom has made it clear that she dislikes some of my inclinations. Namely comic books, action figures, my artistic preferences (e.g. H.R. Giger, personifications of death), DVD purchasing, computer and video game playing. She's already getting bent out of shape by my few World of Warcraft late night gaming sessions. And I know it'll only get worse.

My response is going to be the "purchasing" of additional buffer zone. To wit, there are various things I need to accomplish. I have to submit the remaining items for my Connecticut Bar Exam Application. I have to organize all the crap I brought home and deal with it. I have to find a job. As I accomplish pieces of these, she will in turn be more forgiving of the things I do and own that she so dislikes.

I have been playing a bit of World of Warcraft. In WoW, once you reach level 60 there are currently 3 (soon to be 4) end-game dungeons to explore. One is a 40-person single-enemy encounter, Onyxia (Ony), with a 5-day cooldown. One is Molten Core (MC), a 40-person zone with 10 monsters, the last one being *very* difficult to kill. The third is the newly-released Blackwing Lair (BWL) and is a 40-person instance with *very* difficult bosses. The raid group I participate in is an organized late night raiding group called Late Night Raiders (LNR). LNR raids Ony and MC. The raid starts forming between 10:30pm and midnight. The MC nights go to 3-4am or later. Fortunately the raid is now fairly successful and can clear 4+ MC bosses in a night. This week we cleared the first 4 one night and the second 4 the next night. Ony makes 3 nights a week. There is at least one more night, now working on the 9th MC boss, Majordomo Executus. My limit is probably 3 nights a week if that.

As you can see, raiding MC with LNR messes up my schedule but good. Fortunately 2 of the nights are Friday night and Saturday night so those following days I can fudge.

--Shit. Mom is calling for me. Goddamnit.--

--Okay. Dog was whining, he's just annoyed about being gated off for dinner. She's not feeling well. We'll save the chicken for tomorrow night.--

Anyways, the WoW LNR raiding schedule is harsh. But it's fun 'cause the people are cool and we all know what to do and do it so we're also successful. We gets the phat lewt and so on. But it takes place late at night for me and pisses my mom off something fierce. *sigh*

There's also some question of finances. My mom, who is often apt to cry wolf when in fact no wolf is within the township or even the country, is concerned about things. We have a big house and lately she's been dropping hints that she plans on selling it in the distant future and moving to a condo complex. Problems abound with this mere plan, including ye 'olde attic o' stuff and ye 'olde basement o' stuff not to mention ye 'olde garage half-filled wit' stuff. Plus me moving back home and bringing stuff *into* the house doesn't help. Not to mention things like the mortgage and credit card bills. And the risen property values in the town that don't help us sell so much as create trouble purchasing. So I have no clue what's going on here but at some point I'll pointedly ask her why she thinks things have gone South when I've had little indication of such in the past 3 years. (Granted I have my head in the sand but y'know.)

So that's things for now. I'm unpacking. Working on my applications. Under pressure to find a job that I'm not sure I'll want when I find it. Etc. The goodness just abounds these days. At least I'm slowly losing the weight I gained in Italy, though I should get more exercise too.

Bleh.

Oh, and in happy news, 2 of my friends got engaged during their vacation to Italy. A warm and heartfelt congratulations go out to LT & JB! May you both find the contentment and happiness that surely awaits you in the future! Cheers!